If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Warning about soaking dry dog food

This is a terrible story but worth posting. My cousin recently bought two springer spaniel pups and on the breeders instructions bought dry Pedigree adult food (not sure which one but will post when I know). She told her to soak the food for 15 minutes before feeding. This was working out fine until she had to buy replacement food. They only had the puppy variety so she went with that. She soaked it for 15 minutes and gave it to the dogs. One of the pups ate more than the other and soon thereafter was screaming in pain. She took the pup to the vet where it sadly died. It turns out that the food had swelled to 4 times it's normal size in the puppy's stomach and therefore it killed the puppy. I asked her what the instructions said and there was nothing about soaking the food, therefore I believe it should not have been soaked. She made a very innocent mistake with tragic results. Does anyone here know anything about soaking dry food and how it should be done properly? Needless to say she is being very careful how she feeds the remaining pup and she feels so guilty it would break your heart.

Oh your poor cousin.... what a tragic event. We had the pedigree chum dry puppy for Busta and soaked it - but made sure we had the right measurement, we are now soaking Ozzy's as his front teeth are coming through and a bit painful....

That seems so odd to me.. If you ate it dry, it would have to soak up liquid to fall apart (in the stomach)-- so wouldn't soaking it outside the body help? I have two pups who are losing teeth-- the lil girl won't eat the dry unless I soften it with water or broth first. Such a sad ending-- so sorry for the pup and your cousin. Sandy

We're guessing that it should have been soaked for longer than the original food. The original food was soaked for 15 minutes. It really was just an unfortunate turn of events. I just shows that you have to be really careful when changing the food I think.

It can indeed swell. Maybe it was a harder food and hadn;t swelled as much. This can happen with fish if you feed dried flake -- if they eat a lot of it when it is dry and then it swells and can cause problems and even death.

I wonder if this was bloat -- which can be really dangerous -- and your cousin misunderstood it as being entirely due to soaking the food? It could have come from the pup drinking a lot of water on top of the food already being soaked, perhaps?

Thanks guys. I read that link on Bloat and it looks like the same symptoms. From what I was told the puppy was a little hoover and just gobbled up the lot. I don't know if she's contacted the breeder yet but I do know that she has written to pedigree because there were no guidelines for soaking the food on the packet. I couldn't stop thinking about it all day yesterday, it's just so sad.

That's so sad I've been thinking about soaking Maisie's food over the last few days as her front 2 teeth have come out and she seems to have gone off her food a bit. I think after reading this I'll perservere with the science plan dry food as she's always had it - dry from the pack. I guess it's just like when babies teethe. They go off their food too, but they will always take enough to keep going until their mouths are feeling better.

Springers would have the deep chest mentioned as being more prone to bloat. I'd say it wasn;t just the soaking, but eating fast as well and also probably drinking or playing aferwards. It would be more complicated probably than just soaking the food. A lot of dry foods are designed to be soaked and they'll mention adding water if not how much; but but that is odd that Pedigree wouldn't say on the packet.